Thanks much for the help, Clae. I'm just not having much luck trying to record either LPs or live piano music into this G4 Mac.
To recount: I'm trying to record the LPs from the turntable through its amp, taking the sound out of the amp's output-to-tape port, but the signal is too strong and overloads the software, clipping the music. I have tried the little slider switch on the iMic in both positions (left and right), and one makes the signal so loud that the software's input meter on the monitor is maxed out solid, and never moves from the top of the scale (full red), while the other position at least lets it pulse in and out of the red, clipping only the loudest parts of the music (of course, on a loud piece, it clips most or all of it). The iMic's sliding switch has no labels, and the paperwork that comes with it doesn't identify which position is Mic level and which is Line level, so I just leave it in the position that lets the music at least pulse a little on the input meter, even though it's pulsing mostly in the red. The recordings I get this way show clipping on the widest waveforms of the music (if that makes any sense to you) but most of them don't sound too bad, at least my wife has no complaint when she takes the CDs out in the car and plays them as she drives. Of course, with all the road and wind noise in the car, I suppose any recording would would sound all right. It annoys me though that I can't get a good recording because I can't lower the volume of the music coming out of the amp. I tried hot-plugging both the iMic into the Mac, and the amp into the iMic, but nothing good happens. The software just stops getting input, its input meter shows nothing coming in, and the sound also stops playing through the external speakers plugged into the iMic. Ony a restart of the computer restores things to the way they were. The other recording endeavor is no more successful: I wanted to record the live sound of a player piano that is about 25 feet away from the computer, so as to transfer all my piano rolls onto CDs. So I bought a little stereo microphone from Radio Shack, plus enough stereo cable to get the necessary length to reach the piano, but when I plug the microphone into the iMic, this setup provides too WEAK a signal. I can get a recording of the piano by turning the input level on the software all the way up, but the input meter on the monitor shows the sound at about a quarter of the level it should have. Again, I don't get a very good recording. Using two small Radio Shack mono microphones instead of the single stereo mic provides an even weaker signal. To work at all, the sliding switch on the iMic has to be in the opposite position from where it is when I record LPs through the turntable's amplifier. So a friend sold me a little preamplifier to try to boost the signal from the microphones, but splicing that preamp into the microphone cable gives me TOO strong a signal again, and on the left side only this time, with little or no input on the right. This results in an even worse recording than without the preamp--the piano sounds muffled and hollow like it's down inside a barrel. There is no volume control on this preamp, so once again I cannot adjust the strength of the signal. So there it is, no great success at recording either LPs or live music. Another helpful person on this list called my attention to a fancier type of preamp made fifteen or twenty years ago and often seen on Ebay (two of them currently are at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1341837125 and http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1341768100), and my next (and probably last) hope is that one of these things might work with both the turntable and the microphone to let me adjust the input levels to get a good recording. Failing that, I guess I'll have to give up trying to get any very good music recordings into this Mac. Thanks again for all the help, and any more ideas are appreciated, Tom At 3:26 AM +1100 3/28/02, Clae wrote: >>But if the hum in the speaker outputs and the headphone jack is from an >>open ground, wouldn't the output-to-tape port also hum? Like I said before= > >ghah. exactly. i think you have been fed a lot of useless >information, which while accurate in itself, doesn't really relate to >your problem, and probably just ends up confusing you. > >>that port doesn't hum, and I can get a clear (humless) recording into the >>Mac from it, but because the volume is so loud the music on the recording >>ends up clipped. There's where the adjustable preamp could fix things--by >>allowing me to turn down the volume. > >Repeating: LINE level (tape out) is WAY louder than MIC level. If >you feed a line level signal into a MIC level input, you are >overloading it. > >try these, and tell us if any of them work: > >Quoting from the iMic page at griffin, >"Works with virtually any microphone including unpowered (Mic level) >and powered (Line level)" > >Make absolutely sure that the iMic is switched to Line level. Line >level is way louder than mic level, and speaker level is louder again. > > From the iMic FAQ: >"The input is switchable between microphone level signals (headsets, >standard microphones, etc.) and line level signals (tape deck, VCR, >musical equipment, etc.) via a slide switch mounted between the input >and output jacks." > > From the iMic Control panel page: >"Currently the iMic control supports output treble, bass, volume, balance, and >mute as well as **input gain**. Some functions such as audio input gain >require that you hot plug the iMic before the new settings take effect." > >So try that. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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